Most Aussie bands struggle to hold themselves together for an east coast tour. Not Indiago, who recently jumped on a chance to undertake a six-date run throughout China. Having already hit Guiyang, Shanghai and Suzhou, the boys are clearly having the time of their lives.
Yet interestingly, it was a chance they almost never had. Relying on a bit of their own elbow grease, a few old friends, and a ton of good luck, it seemed to be the tour they were destined to have. Simply put, we had to find out more about it.
We reached out to Will, Shane, Harold and Matt to find out just what it’s like touring the most populated country on planet earth, how it feels playing to a totally foreign audience, and their thoughts on some good old Chinese hospitality. Take it away, lads.
After a chance encounter with a booking manager, Indiago are halfway through a six-date Chinese tour. We caught up to find out all about it.
The idea to tour China basically started with a Chinese family friend of mine. He’s known me since I was young, and he’s always kept a close tab on the band. He has a lot of friends who work in entertainment over here, and they loved our style, so they invited us over to test the waters.
It’s really only been in the pipeline since earlier this year, so we bit the bullet, and booked our flights!
Our guitarist, Harry, was walking into a bakery in Adelaide, talking to his friend about the tour. The local barista overheard the conversation and recommended we contact his friend who plays in many bands over here in China. One thing led to another, and this dude put us onto a booking agent over here who owns her own company, Bordlerless.
Turns out she just did The Bennies tour over here, and Radio Birdman too. Western music is her thing, and she loved our shit, so she jumped on board straight away. Before we knew it, she’d booked three times as many shows, everywhere from Guiyang, to Shanghai, to Beijing.
It was by pure chance that Harry walked into the bakery that morning before work, ran into that friend, and was introduced to that barista. Before that happened, we were kind of worried about how little shows we were playing. It’s crazy how things work out….
We honestly had no idea what to expect coming over here. We knew there was some sort of market for Western music, but we had no idea what the shows would be like, or the venues, or the crowds, so we came into it really open-minded.
We played our first show on Sunday night with little to no advertising, and it went off! The venue was an underground dive bar called LiveHouse (similar to Fat Controller in Adelaide). The sound was incredible, the vibe was amazing, and the crowd was out of control! We even had the owner in the front row screaming for an encore!
It was the best way to start a tour that we’ve been anxious about for some time. Guiyang is only a small city compared to Shanghai and Beijing, so the shows will only get bigger and better from here.
After we play, all Chinese people want to do is party with the band… so our first night in China saw us chauffeured to a VIP ‘Panda’ Lounge in an upper-class club in Guiyang (turns out our Chinese friend is a lot more connected than we first thought!).
Buckets, literally BUCKETS of beers were served to us, which, in between taking endless photos with Chinese people, we well and truly took advantage of. We’ve had quite a few crazy nights since then, so we’ll try and keep you in the loop!
Keep an ear to the ground for more news from Indiago’s Chinese tour, and if you’re over that way, be sure to head along to their shows:
August 17th – Caravan, Beijing
August 18th – Temple, Beijing
August 23rd – Soi Baochao, Beijing
